For more details, please call Kenneth Downey at +1 617 866 5138

Confidential Prospectus

Fueling North America's Energy Future addresses the policy, investment, and strategic choices facing policymakers, energy consumers and producers, and other key stakeholders in the wake of the unconventional natural gas revolution, emerging climate change policies, and changing perceptions of the availability and desirability of individual fuels and technology choices.

To learn more about this special study program, please download a Confidential Prospectus by completing and submitting the form below.

Overview

IHS CERA invites you to participate in our timely and influential research and policy dialogue, Fueling North America’s Energy Future, designed to offer independent analysis and to engage a broad set of stakeholders—both producers and consumers—on the key uncertainties and policy trade-offs driving fuel and technology choice.

The study’s focus is to understand the potential consequences of two major developments and to offer a forum for fact-based rational discussion and debate.

The first development is the proposed climate change and related legislation. The second is the “unconventional natural gas revolution” and its potential impact on the spectrum of energy choices in a carbon-constrained world and its relation to the drive for renewable energy. The study will provide perspective and insight on the quandaries and challenges that power companies and energy-intensive industries face in making choices about fuel selection and future investments.

This process will generate new insights through highly interactive multistakeholder workshops, informed by IHS CERA analysis and involving energy producers and consumers, policymakers, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

This initiative will assess and help address some of the uncertainties as well as identify areas of potential consensus. It will offer a framework for assessing the potential trade-offs among the goals of environmental sustainability, cost effectiveness, and reliability.

A key focus of Fueling North America’s Energy Future is comparative cost considerations and the impact of proposed policies. What will be the extent of costs under these policies, and over what timeline? How can these costs be mitigated? What are reasonable expectations as to the availability and cost of natural gas, both conventional and unconventional; the timing and cost of emerging renewable energy technologies; and the economic viability and timing of carbon capture and storage?

Key Issues

Specifcally the IHS CERA study focuses on three primary policy issues:

1. What is the potential for natural gas, particularly in light of the promise of unconventional supplies and the new considerations brought about by the climate change debate?
   • What is the overall supply potential for North American gas?
   • How large is the unconventional gas potential and what are the major uncertainties regarding this supply—e.g., depletion rates, land use, and water impacts?
   • What is the outlook for natural gas costs, both conventional and unconventional, and what does this imply for natural gas prices?
   • What is the outlook for other sources, such as Arctic gas and offshore?
   • How will unconventional gas affect other parts of the gas value chain such as liquefed natural gas (LNG)?
   • Will natural gas become a more signifcant transportation fuel?
   • What role is natural gas likely to play in the future power generation mix?
2. What are the impacts and the timing of carbon capture and storage (CCS)?
   • What is the timeline for CCS technology?
   • To what degree and on what timeline will it alter the economics of carbon-based fuel sources?
   • How important is CCS to the viability of fossil fuels such as oil, gas, and coal?
3. What are the potential cost and timing dimensions of noncarbon energy technologies such as renewables and nuclear, and of energy effciency?
   • How much current generation will electric utilities have to retire, and what are the cost implications?
   • What are the enabling infrastructure needs (such as transmission investments), and how are these secured?
   • What is the timing and role of renewable energy options and effciency in achieving a low-cost abatement strategy?
   • Will electric power become a signifcant transportation fuel?

IHS CERA will draw on our extensive ongoing research into these questions and will examine them under different conditions.

A key goal of the study is to help policymakers and other stakeholders develop a shared understanding of the practical boundaries for overall supply and demand projections, prices and costs, and timing in order to test the various assumptions underpinning the policy debate.

Who Should Participate?

To ensure a range of perspectives and maximize the benefts of this initiative, IHS CERA is bringing together senior-level and diverse stakeholders. This group includes energy producers, major energy and fuel consumers (electric utilities, chemicals, and others), policymakers (both federal- and state-level), environmental and other appropriate NGOs.

Energy Producers: Oil, Gas, Coal, Nuclear, and Renewables

• Given the long lead times for developments and the long life of such investments, how do the current and planned levels of investment in energy supply align with the proposed goals being discussed by policymakers, energy consumers, and regulators?
• What other factors, such as technology development and impact on employment, should be considered as part of the debate?

Major Energy End Users

• Are the potential costs of achieving policy goals in line with the competitive needs of the customers?
• What are some of the trade-offs in terms of timing or price level that may be considered in light of the debate?
• How sensitive are businesses to these potential changes in the costs structure—especially employment and access to finance—in light of the current economic crisis?

Power and Gas Utilities

• Will the emerging policies effectively meet the customer’s need for competitively priced, reliable, and clean energy against a backdrop of regulatory and fuel supply uncertainty?
• How does the utility industry ensure that investments being encouraged by the proposed policies (as well as those already made) will actually meet these goals for consumers in an appropriate way for the long term and not unduly sacrifce one objective for another?
• Can utilities be confdent that corollary investments—such as in transmission infrastructure—will be made?
• Do stakeholders clearly understand the full costs and impacts of clean energy mandates?
• What other cost drivers will need to be considered beyond those implied by clean energy goals?

Policy Makers

• How will industry likely respond to the various proposed policy initiatives if enacted?
• How will federal, state, and local regulators need to be coordinated to meet policy objectives?
• What are the various levels of uncertainty in the different options and how much fexibility may need to be considered in policy development?

Workshop Schedule

October 5, 2009: Inaugural Workshop—defning
the Challenges | Washington, DC

The inaugural workshop will bring the key stakeholder groups together to help defne the research agenda and identify the driving issues and constituencies that need to be addressed as part of the study effort.
October 28, 2009: Focus on new and Existing
Gas Supply Options | Calgary, Alberta

How could Canadian unconventional gas plays, LNG, and Arctic supplies affect North American gas options? What are some of the potential threats and uncertainties about these supply sources? The session will also include a focused discussion on the energy demand from Canadian oil sands development.

Associated Virtual Workshop/Webinar: 
Week of November 2, 2009

November 10, 2009: Focus on Clean Energy
technologies | San Francisco

We will explore the potential for clean energy technologies as well as state-level policies and mandates for renewable energy and energy effciency. How will renewables fgure in the overall fuel mix?

Associated Virtual Workshop/Webinar: 
Week of November 16, 2009

November 18, 2009: Focus on the Regulatory
Interface and Fuel Mix | Chicago

At this workshop we will examine the potential regulatory interfaces at the national and local level as well as the potential trade-offs that utilities face in choosing a fuel mix to meet the emerging and changing regulatory demands of low-cost, reliable, and clean power, and the needs, and desires of their
customers.

Associated Virtual Workshop/Webinar: 
Week of November 23

December 8, 2009: the national Agenda—Interim
Workshop | Washington, DC

This session will summarize some of the feedback from the regional sessions as well as addressing other key environmental issues such as land use and water.

January 25, 2010: Final Summit | Washington, DC

IHS CERA will present its consolidated insights and fnal fndings. The fnal report and executive summary will be released shortly thereafter.

March, 2010: Special Session at CERAWEEk®
2010 | Houston

Presentations on key conclusions and implications of the study will be held in conjunction with IHS CERA’s annual Executive Conference, attended by over 1,600 senior executives and offcials.